Mush, an app aimed at bringing mums together in their local area, has raised £2m in a round led by early-stage investor Octopus Ventures
The funds will be used to develop the app and also add new features.
The app was co-founded by Sarah Hesz and Katie Massie-Taylor in 2016 when they met in a playground and wanted to create a way to find other mums in your area.
“Mush was launched to make sure that no mum feels alone in those crazy days of becoming a parent,” said Massie-Taylor.
“Our platform has the power to help address taboo topics like loneliness, post-natal depression and low self-esteem that is felt by hundreds of thousands of women across the UK.
“We see first-hand the voracious appetite from millennial mothers for more human interaction and the desire to build a real life community amongst them, to celebrate the highs and the lows of being a mum.
“Since launching 18 months ago, Mush has evolved from a basic ‘dating app’ to a fully fledged support and advice network for mums.
“We are excited about how this recent investment will enable us to further develop Mush’s feature set to help more mums across the UK and beyond.”
The app includes features to find like-minded mums with kids the same age, chat and meet up with mums near them, join local groups of mums, discover, recommend and review places nearby.
Mush’s recent research highlighting that 80 per cent of new mums struggle with loneliness, alongside recent figures that one in seven suffer from post-natal depression. 43 per cent of those affected crediting peer support as a solution.
Eyal Rabinovich of Octopus Ventures said: “At a time when trust in social media has plummeted and the big players have become impersonal, Mush is bringing purpose back and engaging real people in a way that could shape the future of social media.
“We admire Mush’s determination and impact in tackling widespread issues faced by mothers.”
Mush previously won £250,000 in seed funding and closed a £920,000 Crowdcube campaign at 142 per cent of their target last year.
They were also included in BusinessCloud’s list of 101 Rising Stars in 2017.